"Real Men Don't Buy Girls"

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher team up to start a campaign against the trafficking in young girls for sex. WHAT? you say? Young (11-14 years old) girls sold into slavery in America? The Land of the Free?
Yes, that is correct. According to the Thursday September 30th USA Today (1) more than 100,000 young girls a year are victims of criminal gangs that sell them for sex use. Do the math. More than 100k per year adds up to a tremendous number of young girls seized and abused over many years.
I was going to write an essay on the capture and sale of women for the sex trade. Women from Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Women promised a better life with a job, home and the possibility of freedom only to find them selves locked in small rooms, or chained to beds or pallets and used as receptacles by men. When these women are too sick or broken to be of interest to even the crudest customer, they are tossed out on the street or killed, or just die. Those that live are ravaged with starvation, disease and physical abuse, and broken psychologically. No job, no home and no freedom. Just a short life on the street and a paupers grave.

I was going to write about adult (is a 15 year old girl an adult?) women until I read the article in today's USA Today about Demi Moore. I thought "My God, this is even worse (is that possible?) than adult slavery." What must these girls go through? The fact is I can't imagine what they go through. I know it must be beyond pain and suffering. Beyond abuse.

Then the real anger begins to get me. Who are the sick bastards that use these girls? They are the ones that need to be targeted. Sure, get the gangs that capture and "run" and sell the children, but go after the users. These perverts need eliminating. Oh, but wait. Some of these are undoubtedly rich and powerful men. Men who can protect networks of slave sellers. Men who live beside you. Men who manage your money and preach to you. Men who make laws and judge you. Men who protect you. Men who none-the-less need eliminating. No compromise.

Am I angry? You bet. Support the goals Demi and others have articulated. Don't let these bastards get off.

Image: Demi Moore from "G.I. Jane".

1. www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2010-9-30-sexads30_ST_N.htm

Who would drink “Skunky” beer?

I would, that’s who.
Back in the old days when I first started drinking Ballantine XXX ale, it had a noticeably short lived skunky aroma. The source of this is from the action of light on the ingredients of the beer. My Ballantine XXX was never in the sun, yet every bottle had a delightful whiff of “Flower”. The ale itself was, and still is, flavorful with a satisfying and lingering aftertaste of bitter hops. Not as much as a good IPA, but enough to differentiate it from ordinary lager-type beers. The reason for the whiffiness was the green bottles, and it didn’t take much sunlight to change the hops iso-alpha-acids into skunkiness. It goes away quickly, though, so get ready for it.
Ballantine XXX Ale and other Ballantine brews had a long and twisted history, summarized nicely on the Falstaff fan site linked below. The beer industry went through a major shake-out after Prohibition, and many wonderful brews went away. The Ballantine lable and some of the brews were repeatedly sold and still managed to survive. So look for it and try it if you can.
Sometime, somewhere when you least expect it, you will open a bottle of good ale, hopefully Ballantine XXX, and get a whiff. Don’t be put off! Enjoy the moment. It may never come around again.
Image: http://www.falstaffbrewing.com/_borders/ballantine.jpg
http://www.falstaffbrewing.com/ballantine_ale.htm
Skunky beer: http://www.evansale.com/skunked_beer.html

FGM - Not for the Squeamish

A 7 year old girl takes her mother’s hand as they board the plane in DC. They are headed for Nigeria, to visit the mother’s family and introduce the girl to her grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins. The streets of Abuja seem strange to a child born in Washington. Her uncle drives them out of the city to a small village where the family lives, and a wonderful dinner celebration welcomes the new comers. The next morning the women tell the girl that she is being taken to the “woman’s place” for a special ceremony, and she is excited. She will become a woman!!!
They arrive at a small hut away from the village and all go inside. The child is frightened but consoled by her mother. Next, she is undressed and told to lie down on the ceremonial blanket, made especially for her. She willing does so, though she is still frightened. She doesn’t understand what the women are saying in their foreign tongue. The next few minutes are a blur of fear and pain as the women pin her to the blanket and her grandmother shows her a rusty knife and chants something. Next, her grandmother saws off her genitalia, both pair of labia and her tiny sensitive clitoris. She screams and screams, and passes out from fear and pain. Her mother tells her that now she is a woman.
This true story describes a process called by many names but commonly known as Female Genital Mutilation or FGM. This disgusting, degrading, and utterly unnecessary mutilation is practiced in many countries around the world, mostly by Muslims of certain sects, but also by some African tribes. This little girl was one of the lucky ones. She went home to medical care and didn’t die of shock or infection. Thousands of children are not so lucky. Mutilations done with rusty can tops or broken glass shards often result in death. But hey, these are only girls, right? More where they came from, right?
WRONG!!!! These are children being abused in a most savage way. What have you done lately to oppose these practices? Read the article from UNICEF linked below for more information, and for the sake of a little girl somewhere, DO SOMETHING!!!
(Oh, and on the wedding night? The most badly scarred brides are “opened” with a sharp dagger, providing the husband proof of virginity, and lubrication. That make you feel any better?)
Image: diasporadical.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/fgm.jpg
UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_genitalmutilation.html